Coal is dead; long live coal. Not too long ago, it seemed the fossil fuel was a spent commodity. Clobbered by oversupply, weak steel prices, high operating costs relative to other energy sources, a vocal divestment campaign and the prospect of decades of punitive environmental legislation, many energy watchers were ringing the death knell for both thermal and coking coal.
Then 2016 happened. First, and most importantly, China shuttered a big chunk of its coal production in a bid to boost the industry's profitability and help its domestic miners repay their debts. Within a matter of weeks, the price of coking coal (the form used in steelmaking and also known as metallurgical or 'met' coal) had more than doubled. The decision by the People's Republic also caused a drop in exports of thermal coal used in power generation, thereby sparking a rise in spot prices.
Shortly after, the United States elected a president who had campaigned on a promise to revive domestic production in the world's largest economy. Within hours of his inauguration, Donald Trump laid out his commitment "to clean coal technology, and to reviving America's coal industry, which has been hurting for too long". At the risk of ignoring the market forces that had led to its multi-generational decline - and in specific defiance of Barack Obama's attempts to reduce emissions from coal-burning power plants under the Clean Power Plan - the effect has been to put coal back on to the energy agenda.